obsequiousness
noun
obsequiousness is a noun meaning “The quality of being obsequious; servile compliance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled O-B-S-E-Q-U-I-O-U-S-N-E-S-S, and it appears about once in every 38 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of obsequiousness is obsequiousnesses.
What does obsequiousness mean?
noun
- 1
The quality of being obsequious; servile compliance.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce obsequiousness?
- General-American
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-obsequiousness.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of obsequiousness
- obsequiousnesses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is obsequiousness?
Obsequiousness appears about once in every 38 million words in written English, the 189,524th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Obsequiousness in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense quality of being obsequious:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | obséquiosité |
| German | Unterwürfigkeit |
| Spanish | obsecuencia, obsequiosidad |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does obsequiousness come from?
From Middle English obsequyousnesse, equivalent to obsequious + -ness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).